Judge 'has difficulty' with Northern Ireland fraudster's claims of 'better lifestyle' for family

A judge has said investigators will uncover 'in which direction the money flowed' in the case of a fraudster who conned her the company she worked for out of almost half a million pounds.

Mother-of-three Norma Smyth, 48, was sentenced to three years with half to be served in jail for the theft from her employers Edwin May Ltd.

The court heard how despite her stealing £3,000 a month for 11-and-a-half years, she still asked her manager for a pay rise.

Judge Alistair Devlin said Smyth, of Duncrun Road, Limavady, 'effectively lived a double life'.

"A hard working and no doubt devoted wife, mother, home maker and church goer on the one hand but who was unfortunately at the same time, unknown to anyone, a skilled, persistent and accomplished fraudster and thief and who had only in December 2019 had the true extent of that double life revealed,” said the judge.

Asked what she did with the money, her defence counsel outlined how she tried to provide a "better lifestyle" and give her family a "better quality of life".

However, the judge said he had difficulty with that.

On charges spanning from 1 February 2008 to 6 November 2019 Smyth admitted stealing a mammoth £437,824 from Edwin May Ltd.

She also admitted that she abused her position of trust within the car dealership by accessing company accounts to apply company funds to the value of £14,962 “in settlement of your personal invoices and car finance repayments”.

Opening the facts of the case, prosecuting counsel Suzanne Gallagher outlined that in December 2019, the Edwin May group’s financial advisor noticed that of the three branches, only the Coleraine branch was operating at a loss on motability cars.

“She investigated and noted that Volkswagen had paid the bonuses relating to the metallic paint costs to Coleraine Edwin May every month but these costs had not been transferred to the correct accounts,” said the barrister.

During a meeting with the director, the financial advisor and Smyth, who at the time was the site administrator, the defendant initially claimed she had properly transferred the money to four nominated accounts.

When pushed on the matter and asked to provide documentary proof, she admitted that she had in fact stolen money.

With examples of the sophisticated method outlined to the court, Ms Gallagher described how Smyth transferred credits and bonuses to accounts where customers’ cash payments were lodged, and how the fraudster would then withdraw the cash.

In another method which related to the second count, the court heard “there were a number of vehicles purchased from Edwin May in the name of Mrs Smyth or her husband” but the defendant abused her position of trust in that “records show that a significant amount of the account for each vehicle was paid for by transferring money from the Road Tax refund account”.

Because of her trusted position within the company, Smyth was able to hide her tracks in a number of different ways and Ms Gallagher told the judge that in short, the disgraced thief misrepresented lodgements.

Questioned by police, initially in December 2019 and again in May 2021, the defendant admitted she had been stealing funds but couldn’t put a figure on the amount.

Taken to task by the judge about what Smyth did with the “colossal amount of money…none of which she paid tax on,” defence counsel Barry Gibson said his instructions were that “it’s quite simply a case of providing a better lifestyle within the family home and buying things for the family, clothes for herself and in giving the family a better quality of life over this years”.

Judge Devlin was sceptical, however, and frankly told the barrister: “I do have a difficulty with that.”

Mr Gibson highlighted that Smyth had been married to Mark Smyth for 22 years, she had a good work record to now and had had a clear criminal record as well as admitting her guilt at the earliest opportunity.

In jailing Smyth, Judge Devlin said the guidelines were clear that in cases of such a “gross” abuse of trust, matters of personal mitigation carried less weight than in other cases.

During his sentencing remarks, the judge further revealed that Smyth's fraudulent behaviour had also adversely effected her colleagues and the Coleraine branch with the director having “multiple sleepless night” over the stress of the financial viability of the vehicle showroom and the manager offering his resignation after the thefts were uncovered.

Reading from the victim impact statements, Judge Devlin said everyone connected with the showroom had been left with a “sense of betrayal” when they discovered Smyth had “skilfully abused” the trust they had in her, especially the manager who had been “manipulated” into getting her a pay rise.

They also felt that the thefts had “impacted the reputation and standing of the company in the community, the business has been tarnished by association” and that they will have to work to regain the public’s trust because of Smyth.

Judge Devlin told Smyth there were multiple aggravating factors to her protracted and “not unsophisticated offending” including the effect on the victims and the fact that the level of trust reposed in her had been significant.

He warned Smyth that had she been convicted after a trial her sentence could have been up to nine years, but taking his starting point at five years, he was reducing that due to her early guilty pleas, admissions and the undue delay in getting the case to court.

As well as the three-year sentence, split half and half between jail and licence, Smyth will also face confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Adjourning that as part of the case to September, Judge Devlin warned that while Smyth claims she had little benefit but for a better quality of life and a “mortgage free home,” investigators will ascertain “in which direction the money flowed”.

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